Israeli Arab: We are Part of the Palestinian People

Secretary-General Ayman Odeh of the Hadash party said, Thursday, that Israeli Arabs are an integral part of the "Palestinian" people and stayed on their land despite suppressive steps by Israel, according to the official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA. Speaking in Shechem to mark what hostile Arabs call Nakba (Catastrophe) Day - the secular calendar anniversary of the state of Israel - he accused Israel of trying to change the conflict with the Arabs from political to a religious one between Jews and Muslims.

Referring to a proposal by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to anchor Israel's identity as a Jewish state in law, Odeh noted that 20 percent of the population is Arab and said the country would become bi-national as long as its Arabs adhered to their belonging to the Arab nation and called on them to add their weight to serve their people.